1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a developing device employing a liquid toner in which toner particles are dispersed in carrier liquid and relates to an image forming apparatus having the same and an image forming method.
As an example of such developing device wherein a latent image formed on a photoreceptor is developed by a development roller carrying a liquid developer, there has been proposed a developing device employing a liquid toner wherein the liquid toner on a development roller is compacted by a compaction roller before the development, independent voltages are applied to the development roller and the compaction roller, respectively such that the applied voltage of the compaction roller is higher than the applied voltage of the development roller so as to prevent fogging and density unevenness of images, thereby forming high quality images. In the developing device employing a liquid toner, a toner layer on the development roller is compacted into a film state so as to facilitate the movement of the toner layer in subsequent development and transfer processes, thereby forming an image without distortion and with high developing and transferring efficiency (see, for example, JP-A-2002-278291).